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The TennesseanThu, 13 Mar 2014 22:16:58 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6Vanderbilt football finalizing four-game contract with Massachusettshttp://blogs.tennessean.com/vanderbilt/2011/08/09/vanderbilt-football-finalizing-four-game-contract-with-massachusetts/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/vanderbilt/2011/08/09/vanderbilt-football-finalizing-four-game-contract-with-massachusetts/#commentsTue, 09 Aug 2011 21:53:10 +0000Jeff Lockridgehttp://blogs.tennessean.com/vanderbilt/?p=1717Vanderbilt is in the process of finalizing a deal for a four-game football series with Massachusetts, the first of which will be played next season in Nashville.

The Commodores will play UMass twice at home and twice at Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium, home to the New England Patriots, over a stretch of five or six years, Vanderbilt vice chancellor of athletics David Williams confirmed on Tuesday.

“They asked us to generate the contracts, so we are generating them and putting that together,” Williams said.

UMass announced earlier this year that it will jump from the NCAA’s championship subdivision to the bowl subdivision beginning in 2012. It will join the Mid-American Conference in football while remaining in the Atlantic-10 in other sports.

UMass will play its last season in the Colonial Athletic Association this year. The team posted a 6-5 record in 2010.

The addition of UMass rounds out Vanderbilt’s 2012 non-conference opponents if Vanderbilt keeps Presbyterian on the schedule. Williams expects to have to reschedule a season-opening date with Presbyterian if the Commodores instead open against South Carolina – a move the SEC has discussed with Vanderbilt.